California Gardens - Ornamental Grasses

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Ornamental Grass List ~ Plants with grass-like foliage
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Grasses, sedges and rushes and a number of bulbs, are great additions to the landscape for the soft flowing texture, their foliage colors. I have lumped a wide range of plants with grass-like foliage as I often use them for much the same purposes. The versatile ornamental grasses can be very short, from just a few inches tall to 10 feet or more. There are grasses with red foliage, silver foliage, striped foliage, rootbeer colored foliage, not to mention some few with just plain but strikingly verdant green foliage. I use the ornamental grasses and similar plants often to soften a border or to provide some movement in the landscape. In some cases to make a very lush environment such as with Setaria palmifolia. The ornamental grasses will rustle in the wind. Many of these plants, such as Scirpus, Carex, Juncus, and are great in or near water. Lomandra longifolia is even fragrant. I can smell ours as I walk down the garden path long before I get there. Some of the ornamental grasses are very fertile and can cause problems in the landscape and in the wild if they escape. Other ornamental grasses seem quite tame. If gardening near wildlands you should have caution when planting plants that might do just a little too well if they escape.	Anemanthele lessoniana * New Zealand Wind Grass Arrhenatherum elatius bulbosum variegatum * Bulbous Oat Grass Astelia chathamica Silver Spear Calibanus hookeri * Mexican Boulder Carex buchananii * Leather Leaf Sedge Carex divulsa * Berkeley Sedge Carex glauca * Grey Sedge Carex morrowii * Variegated Sedge Carex testacea * Orange Sedge Carex praegracilis * Clustered Field Sedge Carex tumulicola * Berkeley Sedge Chondropetalum tectorum * Cape Reed Cordyline Sunrise Dasylirion wheeleri * Desert Spoon, Blue Sotol Dianella Tas Red * Tas Red Flax Lily Dianella tasmanica * Flax Lily Dianella tasmanica variegata * White Striped Flax Lily Elegia fistulosa * Hollow Reed Elymus condensatus Canyon Prince * Canyon Prince Giant Rye Eryngium yuccifolium * Button Eryngo, Rattlesnake Master Festuca californica * California Fescue Hakonechloa macra Aureola * Golden Japanese Forest Grass Helictotrichon sempervirens * Blue Oat Grass Hesperaloe parviflora * Red Yucca Leymus condensatus Canyon Prince * Canyon Prince Giant Rye Libertia perigrinans * New Zealand Iris Liriope Silver Dragon * Variegated Lilyturf Lomandra longifolia * Mat Rush Miscanthus sinensis Cosmopolitan * Variegated Eulalea Grass Miscanthus sinensis variegatus * Japanese Silver Grass Miscanthus sinensis zebrinus * Zebra Grass Nassella pulchra * Purple Needlegrass Nassella tenuissima * Mexican Feather Grass Ophiopogon japonicus nana * Dwarf Mondo Grass Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens * Black Mondo Grass Pennisetum setaceum rubrum * Red Fountain Grass Phormium tenax Jack Spratt Phormium Pink Stripe Rhodohypoxis baurii * Rose Grass Rhynchelytrum nerviglume * Ruby Grass Sesleria caerulea * Blue Moor Grass Setaria palmifolia * Palm Grass Scirpus cernuus * Fiber Optic Grass, Low Bulrush Sisyrinchium bellum * Blue Eyed Grass Sisyrinchium californicum * Yellow Eyed Grass Sisyrinchium Rocky Point * Rocky Point Blue Eyed Grass Sisyrinchium striatum * Yellow Blue Eyed Grass Sisyrinchium striatum Aunt May * Variegated Satin Flower Thysanolaena maxima * Tiger Grass Typha domingensis * Southern Cattail Zephyranthes candida * Fairy Lily

Ornamental Grass List ~ Plants with grass-like foliage